Lu Xiu felt the ground disappear beneath her feet.
Immediately afterward, once she realized what was happening, her vision was swallowed by an endless expanse of pure white.
She had returned to the familiar Construction Space.
There was no sky here, no boundary to the ground—only an endless field of white... and the encapsulated instance floating in midair.
Compared to the instance, this place was almost unnaturally quiet.
Lu Xiu was still frozen in the middle of wildly throwing punches. Noticing the sudden change in her surroundings, she paused for two seconds before slowly lowering her hands.
But soon—
She remembered the System's evaluation again.
"...Who are you calling a coward!"
The more she thought about it, the more indignant she became.
That was called a normal reaction, okay!
Who wouldn't be scared the first time they picked up an axe and hacked at someone! If you're so great, you try it! Besides, she'd been affected by another set of memories, alright! She hadn't cried!
She cursed a few more times, but gradually, her voice grew quieter.
Her anger had come quickly and faded just as fast.
Although the clearance evaluation had been somewhat questionable, she had cleared the instance in the end, and the overall rating was extremely high. Now she could use that rating to get a loan and officially launch the instance.
And...
Lu Xiu actually thought she'd done pretty well.
No matter how difficult the process was to describe, she had cleared a live-action version of Resident Evil 7 in just over four hours.
The sense of accomplishment was overwhelming.
That exhilaration—like finishing a marathon and finally crossing the finish line victorious—had arrived late, but it had finally arrived.
And along with it came a powerful urge to share the feeling with someone.
Lu Xiu couldn't help straightening her back, planting her hands on her hips, and looking at the System panel in front of her.
"Wasn't I amazing? Wasn't I amazing?"
***
No one answered.
The pure-white space was completely silent. Naturally, the game System wasn't going to respond to her.
And there was no one else in the Construction Space with whom she could share the fear, anger, and joy she'd experienced while clearing the instance.
Lu Xiu paused for a moment, then slowly lowered her hands from her hips and sat down.
The pure-white floor was cold and spotless.
She drew her shapely long legs up, wrapped her arms around her knees, rested her chin on them, and smiled softly.
After a while, Lu Xiu finally sorted out her emotions, lifted her head, and reached out to swipe open the windows that had been repeatedly popping up but had shrunk into the upper-left corner because of her wild flailing.
Time to check the rewards.
【Instance Verified!】
【System Rating Generated—】
【Instance Name: Resident Evil】
【Instance Rating: C → S】
【Instance Type: Horror / Survival / Puzzle】
【Ticket Price: 200 Survival Points】
【Instance Description: One day, Ethan Winters received a message from his wife, Mia, who had been missing for three years. Following the clues, he arrived at an abandoned mansion in Louisiana, only to find the Baker Clan waiting for him inside that madhouse. He was forced into a twisted and brutal struggle for survival against the malicious Baker Clan...】
【Instance Feature Tags: Faced with extreme terror, physical torment, and the inhuman monsters of the Baker Clan, players must display psychological endurance and a will to survive beyond that of ordinary people. The reason the player knowingly enters the devil's den alone is simply to find the wife who has been missing for three years. That conviction is the foundation that allows the player to resist fear. It is also the Courage of an Ordinary Person—the courage to face terror for the sake of love.】
【Possible Rewards: 'Courage of an Ordinary Person'; Rare Items; Attribute Point Rewards.】
【Creator: Lu Xiu】
S-rank?!
The instance she'd recreated from the memories of her previous life was actually S-rank?!
And there really was a skill reward for clearing the instance!
Courage of an Ordinary Person...
Wasn't that the exact theme she'd written into the instance?
So the clearance reward really was connected to the theme of the instance?
Didn't that mean...
Lu Xiu suddenly thought of something, and her beautiful eyes lit up.
Besides, if the instance was S-rank, a ticket price of only 200 seemed a little low.
But Lu Xiu quickly realized it was far too early to think about that, so she hurriedly reined in her wandering thoughts and clicked on the next window.
【Constructing Reward Settlement—】
【Instance Rating S, Instance Clearance Score SSS—】
【Construction EXP +480】
【Mental Strength Attribute Points +7】
【You have leveled up to a Level 3 Dungeon Architect!】
【You are the first Dungeon Architect to create an S-rank instance! Special reward settlement in progress... Congratulations! You have obtained the special skill 【Anti-Visual Mental Image】!】
It's here!
The self-preservation ability she'd been longing for had finally arrived!
Lu Xiu was a little excited.
But wasn't this supposed to be a skill used for constructing instances?
What did adding "Anti-" mean?
Could something like this really be rewarded to a player?
Had she received it because she'd used it too many times?
Or was there some other evaluation criterion?
With excitement mixed with a trace of doubt, Lu Xiu opened the skill description.
A new window appeared.
【Special Skill: Anti-Visual Mental Image】
【Rating: SS】
【Type: Perception / Passive Trigger】
【Ability Description: Close your eyes. As your Mental Strength spreads outward, your brain will automatically construct a mental image of the surrounding environment. Within the range of that mental image, any life form with sufficiently strong life fluctuations will be perceived by you, unaffected by ordinary obstacles.】
【Perception Range: Base Radius: 15 meters; Mental Strength Bonus: +12 meters (Current Mental Strength: 12); Final Perception Domain: 27 meters (Radius)】
【Identifiable Targets: Humans, animals, abnormal creatures, and other individuals with strong life fluctuations.】
【Cost: None】
【Note: Now, please close your eyes and imagine the outline of an orange... Even if there isn't an orange nearby, an image of one automatically appears in your mind, right? Although vague and indistinct, it still appeared. This is called a Visual Mental Image. Isn't the human brain amazing?】
After reading the skill description, Lu Xiu's eyes immediately lit up.
Wasn't this an absolutely god-tier scouting skill?!
Not only could it ignore obstacles, but the range was huge as well.
The base radius alone was fifteen meters, and it even received a Mental Strength bonus!
And it just so happened that the Dungeon Architect rewards gave Mental Strength points.
Wow.
Lu Xiu stared at the range description, unconsciously visualizing it in her mind, and couldn't help feeling that it was a little ridiculous.
She'd only created one instance and had already received seven Mental Strength points.
If she kept developing like this, just how absurd would this skill's detection range become?
The only pity was that the skill didn't seem to have any kind of filtering function.
There were living things everywhere in a city...
Lu Xiu couldn't think of any particularly useful application for it at the moment, but that was fine.
That was only for now.
She would find a use for it eventually.
Besides, being able to prevent sneak attacks was already useful enough.
Satisfied, Lu Xiu closed the skill description and continued reading.
The Dungeon Architect rewards had been excellent.
Next came the rewards for clearing the instance itself.
【You have cleared the 'Resident Evil' instance!】
【Instance Completion: 100%】
【Overall Clearance Evaluation: SSS】
【Obtained EXP: 1150, Survival Points: 2400】
【Obtained Items/Equipment: First Aid Med * 10, MPM pistol * 1】
【Obtained Special Rewards: Agility +2, Strength +2, Mental Strength +4】
【First clearance of the instance, obtained SSS evaluation reward: Atypical Courage】
【Settlement Complete.】
Lu Xiu: "..."
Wasn't it supposed to be Courage of an Ordinary Person?
What did Atypical Courage mean?
She opened the description.
【Skill Name: Atypical Courage】
【Rating: SSS】
【Type: Mental / Attribute Enhancement (Special Variant)】
【Effect Description:
When confronted with terror, bloodshed, and desperate situations beyond common sense, Mortals possess no superpowers—only the obsession to never retreat.
But you, a coward, are different.
You will begin to enjoy the battle.
You will begin to hunt the monsters.
You will no longer attempt to understand fear, but instead seek to exorcise it through physical means.】
【Skill Passive Duration: 300 seconds】
【Note: At first, you were scared half to death, but later you decided that Hell wasn't such a big deal after all. Since the monsters refuse to be reasonable, you'll simply be even more unreasonable than they are. This kind of courage does not come from love, but from nerves on the verge of burning out and that faint trace of... inexplicable dark humor.】
"..."
Lu Xiu fell silent.
This seems ridiculously strong.
Although she still lacked any systematic understanding of how this digitized world worked—the Dungeon Architect System, the skill System, the attribute point System, the instance System...
She was still confused about almost everything.
She didn't even have a proper understanding of prices.
But even she could understand the sentence about converting Mental Strength into an equal amount of Agility and Strength.
To put it bluntly, wasn't this basically losing SAN in exchange for Strength and Speed?
...Turning straight into a brute.
Not to mention that the skill also reduced pain.
No matter how she looked at it, there didn't seem to be a downside.
After all, the conditions for triggering this BUFF were suffering severe injuries such as amputation or puncture, or entering a state of extreme fear, emotional collapse, or near-death.
If things had reached that point, the player was either losing their mind or about to die.
Who cared about staying rational then?
You're about to die! How do you expect me to stay rational?!
If, in a situation like that, Mental Strength could be converted into Strength and Agility, then it really would be extremely practical.
However...
Lu Xiu hadn't expected the skill to have an active activation method as well.
And the description was also somewhat... subtle.
It felt as though the System had tailor-made the skill according to the way she'd cleared the instance.
She'd been far too unrestrained during the Late Stage, and apparently the System had mistaken her for a psychopath...
But whatever.
It was actually a good thing that the skill could be activated manually.
After all, who would randomly cut off their own hand just to trigger a skill?
If the System wanted to misunderstand her, then so be it.
As for whether she'd actually use it...
At the moment, Lu Xiu couldn't think of many situations where she would need it, unless she entered System instances herself or went directly to the front lines...
But that didn't matter.
You could never have too many skills!
This was a god-tier self-preservation skill!
Besides.
There was one more thing worth noting.
This Atypical Courage appeared to be a special variant.
Was the original version of the skill really this powerful?
Thinking about it, Lu Xiu rummaged through the chaotic pile of notification windows floating in front of her.
After searching for a while, she finally found what she was looking for.
【Skill Name: Courage of an Ordinary Person】
【Rating: S】
【Type: Mental / Attribute Enhancement】
【Effect Description: When the player suffers severe injuries such as amputation or puncture, or enters a state of extreme fear, emotional collapse, or near-death, rational inhibition will be broken and survival instinct will enter an overloaded state. Pain perception will be reduced by 50%, and 35% of your 【Mental Strength】 attribute will be converted into 【Agility】 and 【Strength】.
When confronted with terror, bloodshed, and desperate situations beyond common sense, Mortals possess no superpowers—only the obsession to never retreat.】
【Cost: None】
【Duration: 300 seconds】
【Note: I am only an ordinary person. I didn't come here to save the world. I just want to bring my wife home. This ordinary love gives me the courage to face the abyss.】
"..."
Lu Xiu propped up her rounded chin, looking thoughtful.
This should be the skill that ordinary players were normally rewarded with for clearing the instance.
The two skills were broadly similar, but in terms of their effects...
The latter could basically be considered an all-around weakened version of Atypical Courage, and it also lacked the ability to activate it manually.
But it still seemed pretty powerful.
And, as the saying went...
You're about to die anyway, so who cares about staying rational?
For other people, this should be pretty appealing, right?
The allure of becoming a brute.
Come to think of it...
Even setting aside the skill, the Survival Point reward from this instance was incredibly generous.
2400 points!
The clearance reward alone was almost enough to cover the rule stabilization fee!
She was only 600 points short!
If the Survival Point rewards were this generous...
Then it almost felt like there was no need to launch the instance at all.
She could simply keep creating instances, clear them herself, collect Survival Points, then use those points to create even more instances...
Wouldn't that create a perpetual motion machine?
No expenses, just constantly collecting Survival Points!
Wouldn't that be much faster than letting players pay for tickets and waiting for dividends?
Lu Xiu suddenly felt as though she'd discovered a BUG...
And she was itching to try it.
But just as Lu Xiu began to think that this really might work...
Her gaze fell on the S-rank evaluation of the instance, and she suddenly felt reluctant.
After all, creating an instance like this hadn't been easy.
Clearing it and obtaining a rating hadn't been easy either.
And it was the first privately created S-rank instance.
It would be such a waste not to launch it.
What if lots of people played it?
What if the ticket revenue was high?
What if this skill could help with the fighting on the domestic front lines?
Hmm...
Lu Xiu rubbed her soft, long hair.
Forget it.
She'd better take out a loan and launch the instance first.
If the results turned out badly, then she could simply stop launching instances in the future...
She'd just create them and play them herself.
As for the ticket price...
200 was fine.
She had originally based the price on the 【Loner】 instance. Although it was a little low, now that she had a fallback plan, she didn't intend to raise it.
Hmm.
Having made up her mind, Lu Xiu checked the remaining windows once more.
After confirming that she hadn't missed anything, she closed them all and began summarizing what she'd gained.
The instance had finally received a rating and could now be launched.
And she finally possessed some means of protecting herself...
But it still felt as though she lacked any real offensive ability.
【Atypical Courage】 only provided a BUFF. It wasn't an offensive skill in itself.
Maybe she could try creating an action game for her next instance and see whether she could obtain some offensive abilities from it...
After all, she couldn't exactly go around punching people, could she?
Hmm...
Actually, maybe she could.
Although she'd been wearing Ethan's skin inside the instance, underneath it, the body had still been this body...
Hadn't she cleared the instance in the end?
She'd run and jumped, swung an axe, fired guns, kicked down doors, climbed through windows...
Surely she couldn't be a fearsome fighter inside the instance and then turn timid the moment she returned to reality?
It was the same body...
Thinking of this, Lu Xiu clenched her pink fist and lightly punched forward...
Then her movement suddenly stopped.
She lowered her gaze toward her proud chest, which was still trembling slightly from the motion of the punch, then looked at her slender, fair arms.
Alright.
Maybe it wasn't quite the same.
At least...
It certainly didn't look the same.
Lu Xiu immediately leaned backward and lay flat on the ground, her pretty face faintly flushed.
"I'm such a hassle."